The Coi and Dodge (1983) method was utilized for determining children's social status within the classrooms. Means and standard deviations for the total number of positive nominations and negative nominations are used to begin determining social status:

zLM = the z-score for the 'liked most' question.
zLL = the z-score for the 'liked least' question

SOCIAL PREFERENCE (SP).

SP = zLM - zLL

The main idea behind SP (Social Preference) is that the zLM score will obviously be a positive figure if zLM is greater than zLL, while if the zLM is less than zLL, the result will be a negative number.

Scores in the middle, that is close to zero (0) indicate average social preference.

SOCIAL IMPACT (SI).

SI = zLM + zLL

SI is whether or not children are liked or disliked by the group as a whole. Whether or not they are liked or disliked the group is nevertheless responsive to them. Therefore, both the zLM as well as the zLL scores are an important consideration.

Given these four computations [1) zLM, 2) zLL, 3) SP and 4) SI] one can then apply Boolean Logic to determine the five specific categories of social status:

a) POPULAR = SP gt +1.00 AND zLM gt 0.0 and zll lt 0.0

b) REJECTED = SP lt -1.0 AND zLM lt 0.0 and zLL gt 0.0

c) NEGLECTED = SI lt -1.0 and zLM and zLL = 0.0

d) CONTROVERSIAL = SI > +1.0 and zLM and zLL gt 0.0

e) AVERAGE STATUS = any child whose scores cannot be fit into social categories a through d above.